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Monday, February 2, 2015

V12:Chapter Eleven-Journey of the Mind

Volume Twelve

Chapter
Eleven

Journey
of the Mind

In which Dodger takes part in a battle
of wits

“Commander
Rex,” Dodger said, remembering the man’s profile from Bigby’s coin. The same
coin Kitty gave the circus owner when she absconded with the elephant. Only Rex
would be narcissistic enough to put his own profile on his own gold.

“Very good, Mr. Dodger,” Rex said. “Nothing
gets past you. Does it? I was right. You are the perfect man for the job. Far
better than that other halfwit.”

It
was strange to hear that voice issue from a normal human mouth. A male mouth.
This thought sparked a series of other thoughts until Dodger made an
embarrassing connection. “Ugh! I kissed you!” Dodger wiped at his mouth,
rubbing his sleeve across his tongue over and over and over. He spied the gun
still laying at his feet.

Rex
rolled his eyes and huffed. “Is that really necessary?”

“Absolutely.
I can still taste your mustache.” Dodger doubled over and began gagging
overdramatically. In his act, he let his arms dangle, his fingertips just
brushing the gun.

“Yes,
yes, very amusing. Very droll. You love to break the tension up with a bit of
showmanship, don’t you?”

The
words were so much like the doc, they stopped Dodger in his repugnant tracks.
But not before he had the gun in hand. He straightened up again, leveling the weapon
at his enemy. “Everyone loves a bit of showmanship.”

“So
your beloved professor has been known to say.” Rex kept his calm, staring down
the barrel of Dodger’s gun.

“You’re
controlling this dream, aren’t you?”

Rex
chuckled. “Yes, but it isn’t a dream.”

“I
told you so,” Rebecca said. She crossed the room to join Rex, standing nearly
atop the man as she inspected him.

It
didn’t take a Dittmeyer to realize Rex couldn’t see or hear the Forsaken. Maybe
it was because she was unique to Dodger’s psyche. Or maybe it’s because she
wasn’t just a figment of his imagination after all. Maybe part of her was
really here after all.

“Correct.”
Rex’s eyes never left the barrel of the weapon so expertly trained on his
head.“Well? Are you going to just stand
there pointing that thing at me all day or are you going to shoot?”

Dodger
cocked the pistol. He glanced to Rebecca again.

“You
know it won’t work,” she said.

“I
don’t think you’ll fire,” Rex said over her. “Once upon a time you found the
solution to every problem in the barrel of a gun. You’re better than that now,
Mr. Dodger.”

“I’m
not better, just older, and more experienced.” After disengaging the hammer, Dodger
tossed the pistol to Rex.

“Surrendering
so easily?” Rex said and pocketed the weapon.

“Not
at all, but I’m gonna guess you won’t go down as easy as Tyler Crank. We might
be inside of my mind but you’re obviously the one in control here.”

“Yes,
I certainly underestimated your hatred for your old partner. As well as your
confidence in your lady friend.”

“Confidence
has nothing to do with it. You might be able to reproduce Lelanea, but you
don’t know her like I do.”

Rex
grinned. The smile suggested he would fix that little problem soon enough.

“Why
are you inside my head?” Dodger said.

“I
think you know the answer to that,” Rex said.

“I’m
too tired and too old for this kind of game. Just tell me.”

“Just
tell you? Come now. What about that world class wit? A man as well read as you
can surely piece this one together. ”

Why
was nothing ever easy? With a sigh, Dodger closed his eyes and put that world
class wit to work. What would Rex want with Dodger’s mind? Wait, not just
something to do with Dodger’s mind. Something to do from inside of his mind. The
answer came to him as bright as a summer’s day. Rex wanted to put his mind
inside Dodger’s body. Of course. He was tired of being a little dog and wanted
to be human again. The only way to do that was to take over someone else’s
body. Here, inside Dodger’s mind, Rex was human. Just as Boon was no longer a
ghost inside of Sarah’s mind.

Boon.

Now
there was another point of interest. Whatever Rex wanted with Dodger’s mind, he
also tried the same thing on Boon, but it didn’t work. Why? Because, as the
professor would say, Boon wasn’t in his right mind. He was out of his mind. As
in absent entirely.

It
was awfully hard to evict someone that wasn’t home.

Dodger
thought for a moment about Rex being inside of his head. If that was the case,
did the little mutt have access to everything? Memories and secrets alike? Hell
no. Dodger wouldn’t let that happen. Aboard the Sleipnir, Dodger might have had
a mind like an open book, but here be planned to snap that book shut and put a
lock on it. Rex wasn’t welcome here. Dodger would make certain the little mutt
understood that.

When
he opened his eyes again, the scenery had changed. Gone was the laboratory aboard
the Phoenix, replaced by a small halo of light surrounded by endless darkness. Miss
Rebecca was gone too. A single table with two chairs rested in the middle of
the blackness. Dodger sat in one chair, while Rex sat across from him.

“Very
clever,” Rex said drumming his fingers on the table in impatience.

Dodger
furrowed his brow.

“You
might be able to shut me out,” Rex said, “but you won’t be able to keep me out.
I will get deeper inside. I will get what I have come after.”

A chess
board appeared between them, the pieces scattered all over the board as if they
had already played half a game. Dodger smirked at the screaming metaphor. Talk
about subtly.

“I take it you’ve you figured it out?” Rex
said.

“You
tried this before,” Dodger said, glaring at Rex. “With Boon. You tried to put
your mind inside of Boon’s body, but it didn’t work.” It didn’t surprise Dodger
when one of his white pawns slid diagonally forward, taking possession of one
of Rex’s rooks.

“Excellent!”
Rex gave an excited clap. “I knew you would grasp it with ease. Yes, I tried
this with him first, and obviously it didn’t work. I have been wracking my
brain for weeks as to what went wrong with that one. I tried to slip inside his
head, just as I have with yours, but when I arrived there was nothing there. I
know the man is a simpleton, but a complete blank? Do you have any idea why
that was?”

Dodger
avoided the question with a shrug. “Why keep him if he was useless?”

“Leverage.
I’ll admit, at first I only kept him alive because I was curious as to where I
went wrong. But after I learned about what a prime specimen you were, I kept
Boon on a hunch. I suspected learning about his existence would give the
professor a reason to follow me.”

“Heck
of a hunch.”

“It
doesn’t matter now because I have you. In fact, after we are done here, I’ll
turn off his life support systems and get rid of his corpse.” A black bishop
slid forward.

“Why?”
Dodger said in a gasp.

“Why
not? The man is all but dead. Without my machine he would have died long ago.
He has no value to me. He is nothing more than a useless hunk of frozen meat. A
meatcicle, if you will.” Rex cocked his head at Dodger. “Unless you know something
I don’t.”

Dodger
didn’t answer. His rook slid across the board and took Rex’s bishop.

“I
thought as much,” Rex said. “But no bother. I have you now. I have you exactly
where I want you.” Rex’s knight skipped ahead, taking Dodger’s queen. “Checkmate
in three moves.”

“I’m
tired of playing games,” Dodger said.

“Of
course you are.” Rex leaned over the chessboard, nearly knocking over the
pieces. He gritted his teeth and hissed at Dodger, “Because you’re losing.
Everyone tires of the game when they are the loser.”

“What
do you want from me?”

Rex
leaned away again, crossing his arms. “You said so yourself. I want your mind.
And once I have it I can control your body, I will have all of your talents as
well as the trust of the professor. Then I will have the train and all or her
marvelous gadgets within, including the TAP. And with access to a time machine,
I will have the world.”

“If
you just want the train and the TAP, why don’t you just take them? Why all of
this cloak and dagger garbage?”

“Because
the train is only part of what I desire. The other part is the philosopher’s
stone.”

Dodger
stared hard at Rex. “The key to immortality? What kind of fantasy world are you
living in-”

“You
want his body too,” Dodger said. All the pieces fell into place now. First Rex
would take command of Dodger, absorbing his knowledge and talents, all the
while raising Little Dodger as a replacement. Then, when Dodger was worn out
husk of an old man, Rex would leap into his protégée. “That’s your idea of
immortality? To keep leapfrogging from kid to kid to kid?”

“Certainly
not,” Rex said with a small frown. “Nothing so gauche. I know for a fact that
Professor Dittmeyer has the capacity to create that which man has sought for
ages. An elixir that fights off the effects death itself. His driver is proof
enough of that.”

Dodger
couldn’t help but chuckle. “If you can call that living, you have a funny idea
of what life is all about. Of course, you might be suited to the life of a lazy
not-dead drunk.” Dodger bore his teeth and did his best impression of the
not-dead driver. “You shure sheem to have the shparklin’ pershonality shuited
to it.”

“Shut
your mouth!” With a resounding smack, Rex brought his hand down on the
chessboard, slapping it with his palm and then sweeping it clean of all the
pieces. He grabbed the edges of the table and seethed with naked rage for a
moment, trembling from head to toe as he glared at Dodger. “I will not have
some murderous, irredeemable filth like you mock me! Me! I am a genius and you
will show me proper respect!”

Slowly,
Rex reigned his anger back in, until he sported little more than a curt frown.
That little display was interesting. It showed Dodger that the man wasn’t in as
much control as he thought. He could be pushed. And that was a good thing.

“I
am not an idiot,” Rex finally said. “I can see the forest despite the trees. I
see the potentiality of Dittmeyer’s work. All he needs is a push in the right
direction. A prompt,” Rex paused as he leaned forward again and finished with,
“from a trusted friend.”

“So
that was your plan?” Dodger said. “To take over Boon’s body and use him to
manipulate the doc into creating an immortality elixir?”

“Yes,
but all of that changed when you came into my life. I am nothing if not
adaptable. Now I have a highly trained assassin at my fingertips, and a healthy
child to command when the time is right. Think of it, my mind filled with your
secrets in the body of a fresh faced young man. Forever.”

Rex’s
blue eyes sparkled under the halo of light, twinkling nearly as bright as his
now wide and eerie smile. Dodger almost cringed away from that smile and those
eyes. The purest signs of insanity if he had ever seen them.

“You’re
crazy,” he said.

“Crazy?”
Rex said. He tapped his chin as if thinking about this point. “I suppose I
might just be. But I also hold all of the cards here, Mr. Dodger. Now that I
have you, I have access to everything you know.”

Not everything, Rebecca
whispered. If you can keep him shut out he
will only see what’s on the surface. He can only reproduce what he thinks he knows
about you.

Dodger
nodded. “All right then. How was this supposed to happen? I surrender my
consciousness and, what, give you control?”

“In
a matter of speaking, yes.”

“What
makes you think I would just surrender?”

“If
you surrender to me, willingly, I will keep your mind alive in the background.
You would act as a consult of sorts. Not in charge, mind you, but enough of
your consciousness left to help shape the future of the world.”

“And
if I don’t?”

Rex’s
smile faded as his face grew hard once more. “If you don’t surrender willingly,
I will rip your mind away from you and I will set it ablaze with terrors that
you cannot begin to imagine and then I will grind the ashes under my boot heel
until there is nothing left.”

Dodger
sucked on his teeth for a moment, considering the proposal. “While I appreciate
your generous offer, I’m afraid I will have to decline. I might have spent most
of my life as murderous, irredeemable filth, but at least I was never an ass
sniffing, crap eating mongrel.”

The
room went dark, swallowing the table and chess board and Rex. Dodger got to his
feet, feeling the stool vanish from under him as he stood. This darkness wasn’t
the familiar arms of his own subconscious welcoming him home for a rest. This
darkness was empty, unfeeling and dead. Cold as a day old corpse. Dry as the
dust of a gravestone. From all around him arose thin, hissing whispers.
Unintelligible words repeated over and over with the background noise of a
thousand writhing snakes. The sound made Dodger’s skin crawl. This was it. This
was what Dodger wanted. For Rex to attack. Only when the man attacked could
Dodger defend himself. And defense lead to counterattacks.

As
Al used to say, you couldn’t untie a rope if you couldn’t reach it.

“You
will surrender,” Rex said from the midst of the whispers.

“You
talk a big game for a man that hides in the shadows,” Dodger said.

Laughter
rolled around Dodger, rumbling out of the blackness like thunder.

“I
know what you fear,” Rex said. “I know what keeps you up at night.”

Without
warning, a soft luminescence streamed down from above, shining on the small
space around him. Dodger blinked a few times at this intrusion of light. When
his eyes adjusted, he found he wasn’t alone anymore. A crowd of men and woman
surrounded him on all sides, seven or eight people deep. There were a good
fifty folks around him with more stretching back into the darkness beyond the
halo of light. Each one sported a pale and waxy complexion, with glassy eyes
and emotionless expressions.

“I
have read your dossier, Mr. Dodger,” Rex said from all around him. “I’ve
studied it. I know it by heart. I know all about your personal demons. Your
panic attacks. Your anxiety issues. The reason you really quit the Agency. Patricia
Jenkins was just an excuse. You wanted out for a long time. Long before she came
into your crosshairs.”

There
it was, Dodger’s painful truth. Patricia Jenkins was just an excuse. He could’ve passed up the job, gone onto
something else and forgot all about her. Instead he put his career and life on
the line to protect her. Turned his whole world upside down to keep her and her
children safe. And why? Because he had long since grown tired of killing. He
had grown tired of the monster he had become. He wanted out and she became his
excuse. Instead of a scapegoat, she was an escape goat. A tangible reason to
quit. Dodger glanced across the crowd, putting names with faces he hadn’t seen
in years. Yet he still remembered them. Remembered them as well as what he did
to them. All of them.

“This
is your nightmare,” Rex said, then chuckled. “Coming face to face with the
people you killed over the years. Those you slaughtered without mercy or
regret.”

“Without
mercy, true,” Dodger said. “But regret?” He looked into the eyes of the nearest
ghost; a thin, pale man with an impressive, bushy mustache. “Regret is all I
have left. Isn’t that right, Mr. Porter?”

The
thin man nodded.

“Who?”
Rex said.

Dodger
never looked away from the spirit. “I thought you read my file, Rex. You should
know Mr. Porter here was my first mark. He had a bad habit of talking to the
wrong people about the wrong things. Selling government secrets is what they
called it. Crank and I caught up with him in China. I never even spoke to the
man. Just did the job and got out of there. One shot to the head was all it
took.” Dodger raised his fingers into an imaginary gun and pulled the trigger.

The
pale ghost nodded again, then vanished in a thin haze of smoke.

Dodger
turned his attention to a curvy woman to his left and grinned. “Madame
Bouchard. It’s been a while.”

She
gave a slight smirk.

“The
Madame here was my, what? Twenty fifth kill?” Dodger said.

The
spirit shrugged, unsure where she stood in his long line of murders.

“She
ran a bordello in Spain,” Dodger said. “Turned out to be a front for a
privately run all female assassin agency. The deadliest and most talented
ladies money could buy. Deadly and talented, in many, many ways. We had some
good times before it was all said and done.”

The
Madame pressed her hand to her gray lips and blew Dodger a kiss before she went
up in a puff of smoke.

“What
is this?” Rex said. “I deliver your personal nightmare and you reminisce about
old times. What is wrong with you?”

“Demons,”
Dodger said, his gaze sweeping the line of ghosts. “You were right when you
called them that. These are my personal demons. My demons. You’re not the only one that has read that dossier, Rex.
I got my own copy and spent far longer committing it to memory than you will
ever have time for. Each name. Each death. If you think you can torture me with
these memories, you’re sorely mistaken.” He reached out and ran a hand through
three of the spirits. They shimmered and swirled at his touch. His heart ached
at the feel of them. “I’ve been torturing myself with the very same things for
years and years.”

A
soft grunt came from the background, and with it the ghosts disappeared,
leaving Dodger alone in the dark once more.

“Fine,”
Rex said from the emptiness. “If a hundred ghosts won’t bring you too your
knees, let’s try a single specific one.”

The
lights rose again, this time illuminating the last thing Dodger expected to
see.